FEBRUARY 18, 1953

NEW YORK, Tuesday—I went to Bridgeport, Conn., on Monday afternoon to deliver the Jacoby lecture at Bridgeport University. It is a new university, scarcely five years old. One may enroll for a liberal arts course, and there are graduate courses in business administration and engineering. There also is a school of nursing where various technicians are trained. The campus is beautifully situated on Long Island Sound.

On arrival in Bridgeport I went directly to meet the students on a panel for discussion of international questions. They asked some difficult questions and I wish there had been time for some real discussion so that the students could have argued if they disagreed with my answers.

Later in the evening some of the young women came up to me to argue whether boys should be inducted into the Army at 18 to fill needed quotas. It seems to me that this depends so much on particular situations that it is almost impossible to give a general answer.

This lecture period was established by Mr. Frank Jacoby and was designed to serve the cause of brotherhood. Last year it was given by Dr. Ralph Bunche.

Today I am starting on a short lecture trip and will be in Harrisburg, Pa., tonight. Unlike the last trip, I am not speaking at universities but will appear before a variety of organizations. My subject, however, will be limited to various topics concerning the United Nations.

I read an article the other day that was reprinted from the U.N. Reporter, called "Our Enlightened Self-Interest and the U.N." by A. A. Berle Jr.

It answered many of the attacks made on the U.N. Anyone who may be having difficulty in explaining to people why Gerald K. Smith, chairman of the nation-wide committee for the abolition of the U.N.; Tom Lindner, the Georgia State Commissioner of Agriculture; and Susanne Stephenson, of the Minute Maids, are merely talking nonsense, will find much factual material in this pamphlet to back up their contentions.

It has been encouraging to hear some talk that tends to make me believe that colleges are not going to be completely meek under the proposed government investigation conducted by Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin.

Yesterday during the panel discussion at Bridgeport University the students asked me whether I thought any good could come from such an investigation. I had to answer that it seemed to me the heads of educational systems and the presidents of colleges were better fitted to investigate their own systems and evaluate who was doing good teaching and who was not. The injection of outsiders, such as those used in these inquiries, tends to create suspicion and uneasiness, and certainly will not be conducive to the free expression of points of view.

E.R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1953, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART PROHIBITED.)